As shown in my copending application Ser. No. 647,332, halogenated polysilanes, such as 1,2-dichlorotetramethyldisilane, can provide 1,4-(bis-chlorodimethylsilyl)benzene by reaction with terephthaloylchloride in the presence of a palladium catalyst. I discovered that a decarbonylation reaction occurred resulting in the production of product free of aromatic silyl ketone.
The present invention is based on my discovery that if terephthaloylchloride is reacted with substantially an equivalent amount of 1,2-dichlorotetramethyldisilane in the presence of palladium catalyst, para-chlorodimethylsilylbenzoylchloride is obtained as the exclusive silylaryl reaction product. This result is quite surprising since on a purely statistical basis, the aforementioned reaction of equivalent amounts of 1,2-dichlorotetramethyldisilane and terephthaloylchloride can result in a mixture of about 25 mole percent of terephthaloylchloride, 50 mole percent of para-chlorodimethylsilylbenzoylchloride and about 25 mole percent of 1,4-bis(chlorodimethylsilyl)benzene.